A storage area network provides information storage and retrieval services to a user community. Typically, storage area networks (SANs) include substantial quantities of mass storage, and may be distributed over a large geographic area. The storage area network includes a plurality of computing nodes, or manageable entities, interconnected and optimized to provide data storage and retrieval operations to the user community. The manageable entities include storage entities, typically storage arrays, connectivity devices such as routers and switches, and hosts, such as server computers operable for providing and managing data throughput between the users and storage entities in the SAN. The manageable entities are interconnected in a network fabric providing the physical transport paths between the manageable entities (SAN nodes).
A typical SAN includes a management application for monitoring and managing the manageable entities in the SAN. The manageable entities are responsive to the management application, and receive and respond to management requests from the management application. The management application executes on a server coupled to the storage area network, and connects to an operator console having a graphical user interface (GUI) for providing SAN status to an operator and for receiving the management requests from the operator. The SAN is therefore an interconnection of manageable entities responsive to a management application and operative to provide mass data storage and retrieval services to a user community. In a large SAN, the number of manageable entities may be substantial.